1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp which improves the appearance of a lamp chamber interior configuration including a reflector which can be observed through a lens covering the opening of the lamp body.
2. Related Art
In a recent vehicle lamp, especially a headlamp, because of the improvement in technology of light distribution by a reflector, a so-called "no-step lens" is popularly employed in which there is no lens step on a surface of the lens covering the front opening of lamp body. An example of the conventional vehicle lamp of this type is shown in FIG. 8. According to the vehicle lamp shown in FIG. 8, a lamp chamber 8 is defined by covering a front opening of a lamp body 51 with a lens 52. A reflector 54 having a concave mirror adapted to form a predetermined light distribution pattern is pivotably arranged in the lamp chamber 53. A lamp bulb 55 is positioned at the focal point F of the reflector 54, and a shade 56 adapted to obtain a predetermined light distribution is provided ahead of the bulb 55.
In general, the reflector 54 is designed as follows: That is, the reflector 54 has a light reflecting stepped surface 57a as the inner surface of its main reflecting surface 57 which extends vertically to control, when the lamp is turned on, a predetermined light distribution pattern, especially a light distribution pattern spread horizontally. In addition, the reflector 54 has an upper wall 58 and a lower wall 59 respectively along the upper and lower edges thereof which regulate the emergence of light which is made vertically and forwardly of the lamp and are in correspondence to the configuration of the lamp. The inner surfaces of those upper and lower walls 58 and 59 are mirror-finished so as not to form an unwanted glare light when the lamp is turned on.
The above-described vehicle lamp suffers from the following difficulty: As was described above, no lens step is formed on the surface of the lens 52; that is, the interior of the lamp chamber 53 can be observed directly through the lens 52. Therefore, the step surface 57 formed on the main reflecting surface of the reflector 54, and the flat surfaces of the upper wall 58 and the lower wall 59 which have been mirror-finished can be clearly observed. Hence, irregularly designed configurations in the lamp chamber 53 are observed from the front of the lamp; that is, the appearance of the lamp is deteriorated or made unattractive as a whole.